Prelude to a date... Campus Town...Dawn Michelle (c.)

Campus town looks like a diminutive Christmas village if it were decked in shades of pink and lavender with neon signs in lieu of wreathes. There is Block Buster video and Thompson's food and Co-op records which moved, recently, from across the street and will still sell you Parental Warning Explicit Lyrics Tapes even if you are twelve. There is Soccer Locker which sells the hell out of Frisbee Discs and a semi-50's diner called the Velvet Freeze boasting the worlds greatest Wonder Dogs. There is a beauty Salon and Donnellys'pub  and Gorman's pub, respectively. Across the street there is One World and ACME comics (usurping the void filled by Co-op). There is Rock of Ages and Peoria Record company further down the street. Five years ago before entering puberty Campus town consisted of lackluster housing and the Varsity theatre with college kids seemingly spending collected decades cruising up and down the upper bluff on Main street circa weekends night.

Now I am finding Dawn. She is between classes. She has told me to meet her at Subway. I see her in he window.

She is eating a pizza sub.

Hey, I say, asking how her poetry class is going.

She says that she is working on Exphrastic nude.

“It’s hard not to look at Gerogia O’Keffe and not think of a vagina and the power of the female form.”

I nod. It is sexy when Dawn says the word vagina even in a scholarly manner.

She is taking calculated chomps from her pizza sub.

 I wonder if Dawn can tell that I spent last night lavishing in the presence of another female.

 "Are you ready to start big time senior year?” I say, trying to be witty, watching my ice breaker melt.

 She takes another chomp of her Pizza sub. She nods several times in a row.

 “It’s really cool, I've been hanging out with Quinn.”

“Quinn?”

 

"Yeah, he was like my mentor in speech from two years ago. He graduated when I was a sophomore.  He’s so talented."

The last thing I want to here is about how talented someone is.

 

Dawn goes on to say that he had a poem published in the Manito Review and that he was a recent recipient of the Jake Wolf memorial Poetry prize.

 

Inside my head I say whoop-dee-fucking-do.

It seems weird between Dawn and myself. I want to ask if we are dating. I want verification that we are somehow involved. That we are an item. I want to ask Dawn if I blew it by kissing her in the doorway to my parents’ abode. I want to ask Dawn why she always  seems casually indifferent when we make plans.

Dawn doesn’t realize that I have been hanging out with Tina. Dawn doesn’t realize that yesterday I stopped back twice, even after Tim said that I just shouldn’t go back because those people are trouble.

In a way I think I went back last night to make Dawn envious.

 High school is less than ten days away. In ten days this summer will officially have eclipsed and I will be a high school student.

There is a knock on the window beneath the yellow S.  It is Patrick. His new bike is next to him.

Patrick then places his lips exactly on the window and begins to swirl his tongue like he is giving the Plexiglas head.

"Who is that?" Dawn says,  taking a stolid chomp of her pizza sub, placing the remainder of her sandwich down in front of her on the table.

"That's my boy Patrick I was telling you about. He's crazy."

Patrick comes in. He reeks of sweat. He has just purchased a new 10 speed and is riding it everywhere.

“So You’re Dawn, huh?” Patrick says, like he is trying haggle loose change out of myself or Tim. He is sweating, He smells like a post-workout towel. I ask Patrick what he has been doing.

“Nothing. I’ve just been riding up the hills of Bradley park. All the chicks are out sunbathing. You oughtta see them. Some even are lying facedown and have their bikini tops of. Boy, if I had water balloon.”

Patrick is making high pitched sounds reminiscent of a hyena during mating season.

Dawn has a look like she has just ingested lemon juice mixed with vinegar on her lips.

“Yeah, you should have been there, I would totally have hit that shit.”

Pat starts swatting his right hand back and forth. With his left hand he is pretending that he is bucking an imaginary bronco.

“Pat, man”  Dawn seems repulsed. Pat then picks up what is left of her Pizza sub and takes a bite of it thinking it is mine.  When he realizes it belongs to Dawn he apologizes with is mouth open.

Dawn holds her hand up in front.

Patrick listen, I need to spend some time alone with Dawn,"

“How about tomorrow we meet? I’ll be over with Tim say about ten. We can go for a long ride."

                                                                            ***

The night before I stop back at Tina's. When I knock on the door she is asleep in front of the hollowed-out Buddha on the couch. The air-conditioner is on.  She is watching HBO.

 

She answers the door sleepy-eyed. She is wearing jean shorts only her bikini top is now red.

 

"I was hoping it would be you," She says, stating that I should of stuck around last night.

 

"During the week Marge works seconds which means she gets off at eleven. Afterwards she usually goes down to the Get-a-way and drinks until about 1 so we mostly have the house to ourselves.."

 

I ask Tina where her stepmother is now. She says she is in her room sleeping off a hang over.

 

"She called into work today. She was pretty tanked last night when she came home."

I can’t stop looking at Tina’s body. It smells like something which has never entered the olfactory senses of my body before and it seems to want to spend all her time just with me.  I can’t stop ogling Tina’s cleavage. They seem ready to backflip out of the top of her bikini in two perfect mounds of flesh. 

I try not to look.

“You know it okay.” She says to me.

“What,”

I don’t mind. I really don’t.”

What. I say again.

Tina smiles.

“I don’t mind that you are sorta checking me out.”

"What!" I say, again trying to look in any which way direction but.

"You know. You are always looking at my boobs."

The last time I had an erection this noticeable was when I was seated in Dawn Michelle's station wagon and she adamantly refused to drive unless I flipped on my glasses. Now the center of my body  looks like the emblem for the Houston Oliers.

Dawn has never even come close to offering anything like this. I don’t even know if Dawn considers me her boyfriend.

"How about this," Tina says, swiping her head both ways, the tips of her fingers still resting almost balletically on the top of her bikini.

"I'll show you my boobs but then you have to show me your cock."

She bites out the word cock. I swear her tongue has fangs. I am noticeably starting to shake. A block away somehow I swear I can see Bob and Frank elbowing, slapping as if they are on the sideline, goading me in applause.

I feel like I am ready to explode.

Tina is tugging at the top of her bikini.  She swipes here head back and forth as if in a refrain. I swear I see what looks like a hint of rose beginning to rise like the sun.

 

                                                                                  ***

 

 

Inside Rock of Ages we are sifting through old psychedelic paraphernalia. There are tie-dyed banners above the counter. Incense s burning.  The owner behind the counter looks like he was left out of Woodstock and had been making it up for it ever since.

Dawn says that she has been wanting to check out the music stores on Main street for a long time.

I ask Dawn if she is enjoying the Freddie Mercury CD I bought her at the mall.

 “I actually let Quinn borrow it. He has a CD player and he is going to dub it for me."

Every time Dawn mentions the name Quinn I metaphysically cringe. Dawn says that Quinn is publishing a chapbook of his poems called Prairie Shadows and that he wrote a poem for her called ‘"Solitary Mallard.” I feel like telling Dawn that Solitary Mallard sounds like Disney character who refuses to come out of the closet during Ducktales.

“It’s just so good to see Quinn again,”  Dawn says, as we flip through vinyl albums, telling me that I would totally love him.

  I lie. I tell Dawn Michelle that I am looking forwards to meeting him someday. I tell Dawn Michelle that I am anticipating her meeting more of my friends. Dawn says yes, about your friend.

“Patrick?”

“Yeah, he’s like uncouth.”

I have no clue what the word uncouth means.

“Please he’s Neanderthal and a misogynist. I mean girls don’t like when random strangers just come up to them and talk about hitting that shit, whatever that is supposed to mean, and then take a bite out of their pizza sub.”

I want to tell Dawn that she just met him.

 

I feel compelled to apologize for Patrick.

“He’s actually not that bad of a guy once you get to know him,”

Dawn shudders. She says that she really enjoy hanging out with my friend what’s-his-name Hale but Patrick is different.

 

“I’m sorry he ate your pizza sub. He thought it was mine.”

 

Patrick walks into Rock of Ages slamming the door. He is reeking of sweat. He looks aggrieved.

“You alright bro?”

 “Some cock fucker just tried to run me off the road. I mean, some girls just shouldn’t be allowed to drive. Girls and the Chinese.”

 

Dawn looks at me and rolls her eyes and rolls her eyes before looking at me as if to say I told you so.

 I pull Patrick aside.

 “Look, I still need to spend some more time with Dawn. I’ll be by tomorrow with Tim. We can go on that long ride we've been talking about.”

 Patrick nods. He acknowledges Dawn’s presence when leaving with a limp wave.

 That is Patrick.” I tell Dawn again.

 She gives a shake like she is uncomfortable and cold

                                                                           ***

To my left there is a clatter.  It sounds like the hallway is coming to life in agitated growls.

“Tina!”

 “Marge!” Tina snaps her top back into place with a hushed flap.

It is her step mom. My customer. She is smoking a Newport cigarette. She has a bottle of Seagrams in one hand and a  2 liter bottle of 7up in the other.  I feel like crossing my legs to thwart my erection.

 

Marge looks around the room. She is befuddled and lost. Tina still has both of her hands on the top of her bikini. 

“Paper boy? What are you doing here? Do I owe you money.”

 

I tell Marge no. I tell Marge that I just came to stop by and say hi.

Marge nods several times. She clears her throat and say ah before taking another hit of her cigarette. She sets the bottle of Seagram’s down before taking an additional drag.

“Tina, I thought I told you to clean out the fucking pool.”

Tina says okay.  Marge goes into the other room.

I tell Tina I should probably go.

Tina looks back at me and smiles.

                                                                              ***

We walk down Main street, toward downtown Peoria.   I insist on walking on the edge of the sidewalk closest to traffic. Dawn calls me calls me cavalier. I say who says that chivalry is dead accept my wife.

“You have a wife?”

“No, it’s a joke.” I tell Dawn. We enter Peoria Record company with the painted caricature of the BEATLES SDT. PEPPERS on the side of the building. Dawn says that she misses albums. She uses the words palpable and tangibility. She says that an album is a vinyl mortarboard.   She says that music just isn’t what it use to be. She asks me what my first album was. I tell her ABC sing-a-long with the Smurfs.  I was in pre-school.

Dawn laughs. We exit the Record store.

“I miss the Varsity theatre.”  Dawn says.   She says that Campus Town is a corporate bog.

“I know it was run down before but Co-op and Avantis were on the right sides of the street. Plus the fact that back in the day Varsity was the only theatre in Peoria that would show savvy savant –garde films.”

Dawn says that she saw Brazil uncut last year and it changed her life.

I go to grasp her hand. Dawn lets go. She says watch the PDA. I wonder why walking down Main street and not holding hands is different from walking around the mall with out finger tips groping.

I wan to ask Dawn where we stand. I want to know why after we kissed everything seems awkward between us.  I want to ask if we are dating or if we are just friends who intermittently hang out and talk about how awkward life is at times. I want to tell Dawn that even though she is kinda ditzy at times and not as smart as her pending poet laureate, I seem to have some sort of physical magnetism towards and how I just can't stop looking at her body which she seems overtly proud to flaunt, not being surprised in the slightest when I turn to Dawn squeezing her fingers  even though I known she doesn't like it because we are in public, inquiring with as much demure forwardness as any fifteen boy can have about the status quo of our rapport by saying, "So, where are we?" and Dawn looking back at me for Peoria, still clutching my hand only momentarily volleying back, "We're in Peoria, silly," before we re-cross Main street to where she is parked under the dead street lamps of Campus town and we leave without making imminent plans or giving each other a farewell hug.   

 

 

I have no clue when I will see Dawn Michelle again.